CES: Will Broadcasters Balk At Dish For Its New Auto-Record DVR Feature?

Dish Network is looking to make a splash at this week’s 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas — but one announcement, which leaked out prematurely, could raise the ire of ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC. Tech trade publications Dealerscope and TWICE broke news embargos tied to Dish’s press conference later today regarding a multi-room DVR called Hopper: It will have three tuners and a huge storage capacity of 2 terabytes. Hopper will make it possible for users to stop watching a recoded show in one room and resume where they left off in another, reports blogger Dave Zatz, who saw a posting of the TWICE article before it was taken down, and Multichannel News, which caught the one yanked from Dealerscope. But it also includes a feature called Primetime Anytime that will automatically record primetime broadcasts from local stations for ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC and retain those shows for a week — in effect turning Hopper into into a catch-up VOD service. Broadcasters have been licensing catch-up rights to Hulu and cable VOD. The TWICE article also notes that Dish is dropping the word “Network” from its name as it focuses more on technology.

Meanwhile, Dish announced Sunday that it has created an intriguing application for sports fans who use Google TV. It monitors what the company calls “excitement levels” during broadcasts and pops up an alert telling viewers where to turn to catch the action. It will focus on Major League Baseball, National Hockey League, soccer, cricket and rugby games, along with pro and college football and basketball. Dish also says that it will rename its Blockbuster Movie Pass — it’ll now be Blockbuster @Home — and expand it to iPads. It won’t affect a lot of people, at least initially: Dish subscribers who pay extra for the service or premium channels, including HBO — and who also have a Dish Sling Adapter and a broadband-connected compatible Dish HD DVR — can use a new free Dish RemoteAccess app to stream movies and shows on-demand on their iPads.